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Artist sees red over government ‘blacklisting’

Harper government critic says Ottawa is trying to ‘silence’ her abroad after funding for a European tour of her work this summer was cancelled.

Artist Franke James holds one of her essays titled "Dear Prime Minister." James says she's been blacklisted by the Harper government because of her criticism of its climate change policies. (BERNARD WEIL / TORONTO STAR) | Order this photo

By Tonda MacCharlesOttawa Bureau

Thu., July 28, 2011

OTTAWA—Franke James is a visual artist, storyteller and environmental advocate who believes in the power of one to effect change.

You might remember her: the north Toronto woman fought city hall and won permission to un-pave her driveway and sow grass and plants instead.

She sold her family’s SUV. She paints, delivers speeches, blogs and tweets, urging people to do what they can to save the planet.

But James fears that at a time when Canada is negotiating a free trade deal in Europe and trying to combat moves overseas that could label Canadian oil sands exports as “dirty,” she’s one voice that’s become too loud for the Harper government.

And the sudden cancellation of Ottawa’s support for an exhibition of her work in Croatia this summer is payback, she says. James was told this month that support was no longer available from embassies across Europe, and that, along with a withdrawal of a key sponsor, puts her entire European tour in jeopardy.

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James is author of a critical visual essay about Alberta’s tar sands. She has publicly challenged Prime Minister Stephen Harper to fight climate change. But she has taken aim at other leaders too. In the 2006 and 2008 elections, she and her husband created a satirical “whack the PM” game online to prompt voters to “smack some sense” into federal party leaders on the environment.

James says she’s voted for and donated to all parties in the past “except the Bloc Québécois.” In the 2008 campaign, she endorsed a carbon tax, a Liberal policy. In the 2011 campaign, she endorsed Green Party Leader Elizabeth May.

Her visually bright artworks and provocative essays came to the attention of a Zagreb, Croatia-based environmental group called Nektarina Non Profit.

It wanted to feature 20 of her original art pieces as part of an Eastern and Central European youth workshop tour. Months ago Nektarina sought a small amount of funding and a nod of approval — key to leveraging other private and government support — from the Canadian embassy in Croatia.

Nektarina’s Sandra Antonovic, in charge of international projects, told the Star in an interview that Canadian embassy officials were initially enthusiastic, and said Canada would back the tour and Nektarina’s promotion of a Canadian artist.

Antonovic says, however, that despite a verbal indication in May that the project might receive $5,000 from the embassy, instructions quickly came from Ottawa that James would get no money and no nod from the Canadian government.

“Who was the idiot who approved an art show by that woman, Franke James?” a senior Canadian official was quoted as saying by Antonovic’s contacts in the Zagreb embassy. “Don’t you know this lady speaks against the Canadian government?”

“The official line was that they didn’t have funds, but this is the back story they gave us,” Antonovic said.

The youth workshop tour began without the James’ artworks, but Antonovic plowed ahead and tried to organize a separate tour for the art pieces, believing James’ environmental and citizen empowerment message was an important one.

She lined up a “silent” corporate sponsor in Zagreb — an international company — and began contacting Canadian embassies in several of the cities where the James art exhibit would tour.

Meanwhile, James decided to enlist Canadian government support on this side of the ocean as a Canadian business. She listed her and her husband Bill’s company, The James Gang, with Canada’s international trade department and sought help from the Ontario region’s federal trade commissioner, Candice Rice, who obliged by writing a letter of introduction for the “environmental crusader” on July 8 to several embassies seeking promotional assistance (printing flyers or setting up local press conferences) for James’ art exhibit tour.

That letter named her private sponsor.

Suddenly, on July 11, Nektarina’s private sponsor notified Antonovic that a Canadian official had contacted it directly, leading it to yank its sponsorship funds to avoid “further damage for our company.”

Antonovic said she was “flabbergasted.”

She will not disclose the name of the private sponsor or her contacts in the company or embassy, fearing repercussions for the employees. But she says the James art tour is now in jeopardy.

In addition to losing the private sponsor, no Canadian embassy in all the cities on the itinerary Nektarina contacted has offered even tacit support for the show.

“I would expect that from the Putin government or a country like Kazakhstan, but I didn’t expect that from Canadians,” said Antonovic, who has family in Canada and has travelled here to visit.

James sees an insidious effort to censor her at a time when the Harper government is negotiating a Canada-EU free trade deal, and opposing European efforts to label Canada’s oil sands as “dirty oil.”

“It’s in their interests to shut it down because they don’t want to raise awareness about the tar sands in Alberta,” says James. “My message is not in sync with the Harper government message which is to ‘greenwash’ dirty oil,” she said.

James says it is “chilling and shocking” to be “painted as persona non grata” abroad by her own government when she has never advocated violence or civil disobedience. “I believe we should change the laws, not break them.”

Though she has had publicly funded support for her work in the past from Telefilm Canada, the Canada Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Ontario Media Development Corporation, the Banff Centre and the Gairdner Foundation, James says all she really wants is not to be “blacklisted” or “censored” by the Canadian government.

A simple “rubber stamp” of approval from Ottawa would allow Nektarina to solicit other support, she says.

The Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade is saying little about James’ complaints.

“Funding was never withdrawn, nor was it guaranteed. Ultimately, Canadian missions did not fund this artist’s European tour,” department spokesperson Jean-François Lacelle said in an email.

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